Yuli's story: Using educational policy to achieve cultural genocide

Author

Katrina Johnson Leon, University of the PacificFollow

Date of Award

2016

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

Department

Educational and School Psychology

First Advisor

Ronald Hallett

First Committee Member

Ronald Hallett

Second Committee Member

Delores McNair

Third Committee Member

Linda Skrla

Abstract

All children residing in the United States have the right to a quality education. At least that is our collective expectation. Through the lived experience of Yuli, a Native American woman from the Southwest, you will discover, due to her birth on a remote reservation, she was not given the same access to education you or I would expect. On Yuli’s reservation, the school system is managed by the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE). Rather than provide K-12 schooling, the BIE operates K-8 on her reservation and then Native youth who want to go to high school must move off-reservation. This qualitative study focuses on Yuli’s experience as she traversed the educational system offered to her in order to complete eighth grade, earn her high school diploma and be accepted to college. Her narrative gives insight into what she lost, personally and culturally, as a result of the operational delinquency of a United States of America government agency tasked with one duty, providing an adequate, quality education to Indigenous youth across America. This study explores Yuli’s story, educational inopportunity, and the cultural impact of leaving the reservation to attain an education.

Pages

150

ISBN

9781369298277

Recommended Citation

Leon, Katrina Johnson. (2016). Yuli's story: Using educational policy to achieve cultural genocide. University of the Pacific, Dissertation. https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/113